Method, server and system for converging desktop application and web application

ABSTRACT

A method, Web server and computer system for converging a desktop application and a Web application. The method includes: in response to a request from a client user for using a target desktop application, starting a desktop application initialization process on the Web server and determining an appropriate corresponding hosting server for the user; preparing and provisioning desktop application environment on the corresponding hosting server and starting the target desktop application; transmitting the corresponding hosting server&#39;s address to the client to make desktop application interaction between the client and the corresponding hosting server; and in response to the completion of the desktop application interaction, stopping and exiting the target desktop application on the corresponding hosting server. The client user is provided with a unified Web console for accessing desktop applications and Web applications and Web files can be shared between the desktop applications and the Web applications.

BACKGROUND

Technical Field

The present invention generally relates to the field of computertechnology, and more particularly to a method, apparatus and system forconverging a desktop application and a Web application.

Description of the Related Art

In the present information technology (IT) field, Web technology iswidely applied because of its simplification, lightweight and based onopen standards. More and more software vendors are dedicated todeveloping their applications based on Web technology. Compared withtraditional desktop applications, Web applications have plenty ofadvantages, for example, Web applications do not require softwareinstallation and maintenance, which makes them easy to be distributed.

However, Web applications also have their limitations. A major problemthereof is that their HTML based user interface can't support advanceduser interaction. Due to this problem, desktop applications still needto be used in many cases. In some cases, an end user needs to switchbetween a Web application and a desktop application to finish his work.For example, when a user is editing his BLOG, if he wants to add somephotos or pictures, then firstly, he needs to find some required photosor pictures, and then he possibly needs to edit them. To do so, he mustinstall some photo or picture editing software (i.e., a desktopapplication). After that, he needs to upload the edited photos orpictures to a Web application. However, such user experience is not sogood because of some of the following reasons: (1) the integrity of theuser's experience is broken; (2) the user must switch between differentconsoles; (3) Web application data and desktop application data can't beshared; (4) the user must install the required desktop application andmaintain it periodically.

To enhance Web application capability, some technologies such as Javascript, AJAX, ActiveX and Applet are widely used. For a Java script/AJAXapproach, its idea is to write a Web application with the help of Javascript, which is a script language providing interactive programmingfeatures. However, the use of Java script also has great limitations.For example, the first limitation is that Java script is executed by atranslator and has poor performance; the second limitation is that someprogramming logic can't be implemented using Java script. For anActiveX/Applet approach, it is not adopted very widely because of itspoor compatibility. On the other hand, the user needs to downloaddifferent plug-ins for different applications and the file size of someplug-ins may be so big that it needs a lot of time to be downloaded.

In view of the above situations, a technology is thus urgently requiredthat can overcome defects in the prior art and converge a Webapplication and a desktop application so as to use the desktopapplication to process files of the Web application.

SUMMARY

A brief summary on the present invention is given hereinafter to providebasic understanding of some aspects of the present invention. However,it should be understood that this summary is not an exhaustivedescription of the present invention. Moreover, it is not intended todetermine critical or important parts of the present invention and tolimit the scope of the present invention either. The summary is onlyused to give some concepts in a simplified form, which is taken asprolegomenon of the following more detailed description discussed later.

To resolve the above problems existing in the prior art, in a preferredaspect of the present invention there is provided a method forconverging a desktop application and a Web application.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention there isprovided a Web server that facilitates convergence of a desktopapplication and a Web application, as well as a corresponding computersystem.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention there is toprovided a computer readable storage medium on which computer programcodes for realizing the above method are stored or encoded, as well as acorresponding computer program product.

Viewed from a first aspect, the present invention provides a method forconverging a desktop application and a Web application, the Webapplication being included in a Web server, the method comprising stepsof: in response to a request from a client user for using a targetdesktop application, starting a desktop application initializationprocess on the Web server and determining an appropriate correspondinghosting server for the user; preparing and provisioning desktopapplication environment on the corresponding hosting server and startingthe target desktop application; transmitting the corresponding hostingserver's address to the client so as to make desktop applicationinteraction between the client and the corresponding hosting server; andin response to the completion of the desktop application interaction,stopping and exiting the target desktop application on the correspondinghosting server.

Viewed from a second aspect, the present invention provides a Web serverfor converging a desktop application and a Web application, the Webserver being capable of communicating with a client and one or morehosting servers and including a Web application and a desktopapplication service, wherein, the Web application generates a desktopapplication initialization request in response to a request from a userof the client for using a target desktop application, and generates adesktop application exit request in response to the completion ofdesktop application interaction; in response to the desktop applicationinitialization request, the desktop application service starts a desktopapplication initializing process on the Web server, determines anappropriate corresponding hosting server for the user, prepares andprovisions desktop application environment on it so that thecorresponding hosting server could start the target desktop applicationand transmit the corresponding hosting server's address to the client,thereby making the desktop application interaction between the clientand the corresponding hosting server; and in response to the desktopapplication exit request, the desktop application service stops andexits the target desktop application on the corresponding hostingserver.

Viewed from a third aspect, the present invention provides a computersystem for converging a desktop application and a Web application,comprising: a client with a Web browser installed thereon; one or morehosting servers each including a terminal service for capturing thehosting server's user interface and a control agent for starting adesktop application on the hosting server; a Web server capable ofcommunicating with the client and the one or more hosting servers andincluding a Web application and a desktop application service, wherein,the Web application generates a desktop application initializationrequest in response to a request for using a target desktop applicationfrom a user of the client through the Web browser, and generates adesktop application exit request in response to a request from the userof the client for ending the desktop application, in response to thedesktop application initialization request, the desktop applicationservice starts a desktop application initializing process, determines anappropriate corresponding hosting server for the user, and prepares andprovisions desktop application environment on it so that the controlagent could start the target desktop application on the correspondinghosting server and the Web application could transmit the correspondinghosting server's address to the client, the browser plug-in is startedat the client side, so as to intercept user input at the client side andprovide it to the terminal service on the corresponding hosting server,and display the corresponding hosting server's user interface in the Webbrowser, and via the browser plug-in and the terminal service on thecorresponding hosting server, the desktop application interaction ismade between the client end and the corresponding hosting server, and inresponse to the desktop application exit request, the desktopapplication service stops and exits the target desktop application onthe corresponding hosting server.

Viewed from a fourth aspect, the present invention provides a computerprogram product loadable into the internal memory of a digital computer,comprising software code portions for performing, when said product isrun on a computer, to carry out the invention as describe above.

In accordance with other aspects of the present invention, acorresponding computer readable storage medium and computer programproduct are also provided.

In those solutions according to the present invention, by embedding aremote desktop application's user interface (UI) into a Web application(e.g., Web browser), it is possible for an end user to use the remotedesktop application to process files of the Web application. This meansthat the user could use the desktop application to edit Web files withina Web page. When a user at the client side is using a certain Webapplication, he may send to a Web server a request for initializing acertain desktop application. After the Web server receives this request,firstly, it finds an existing server which has been installed with therequested desktop application. Such a server that has already installedwith or is capable of being installed with the requested desktopapplication to provide this desktop application is referred to as ahosting server hereinafter. If such a server can't be found, then theWeb server will allocate a new hosting server for the user and provideit with the required operation system and the requested desktopapplication. After the hosting server is ready, the Web server willreplicate Web files into the hosting server and start the desktopapplication with these files. When the desktop application is started,the Web server will return the address of the hosting server (forexample, IP address and port number) to the client. At the same time, aterminal plug-in, which can be acquired from the Web server, isdownloaded or launched within the same Web browser at the client side.This plug-in immediately connects to the hosting server by using theabove terminal addresses and makes the remote desktop application's userinterface to be shown in the Web browser at the client side. Then theuser could interact with the remote desktop application through theterminal plug-in. In the end, when the user closes the desktopapplication, those Web files modified and changed during the desktopapplication interaction will be replicated to the Web server. In thisway, Web applications and desktop applications can be converged.

The present invention has several advantages. The first advantage isthat it provides a unified Web console for end users to access desktopapplications and Web applications. Desktop applications could beregarded as a part of Web applications, and they are hardwareindependent and operation system independent. A Single Sign-On (SSO)feature is ready under the control of Web applications. Moreover, Webfiles can be shared between desktop applications and Web applications,and all changes made by desktop applications can be quickly reflected onWeb applications.

The second advantage is that management effort for desktop applicationscan be simplified. For end users, there is no need to download, install,update and maintain desktop applications at the client side. Moreover,in most cases, some desktop applications may be rarely used by users.With these solutions of the present invention, users do not need toinstall desktop applications locally. Binary codes of desktopapplications are executed on the hosting server, thus it is easier tocontrol software license issues. For software vendors, there is no needto rewrite corresponding desktop applications using Web programmingmodels. Furthermore, traditional desktop applications can be integratedwith Web applications, and the development cycle of desktop applicationscan also be reduced. For system administrators, it is easier to managethese desktop applications and the applications could be maintainedcentrally. On the other hand, all files and data can be stored at theWeb server, thus data loss risk is reduced to minimal and data backup isalso easier. In the mean time, more powerful resource (e.g., hostingserver) could be used to provide better performance for users.

The third advantage is that virtualization and automation technology canbe utilized to reduce cost in those solutions according to the presentinvention. Several existing technologies, such as VMWare, Xen, and IBMLPAR etc., support server virtualization. These technologies couldsimulate a physical server as several logical servers or virtualservers. These virtual servers may share resource of the same physicalserver, which could improve resource utilization and sharing.Furthermore, desktop applications could be deployed on these virtualservers, thereby saving hosting cost for service providers. On the otherhand, automation technology may be used to provision operation systems(OSs) and desktop applications, thereby facilitating to save deploymenttime and reduce human error.

These and other advantages of the present invention will become moreapparent from the detailed description of preferred embodiments of theinvention blow given in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

This invention can be better understood by referring to the descriptionblow given in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which thesame or similar reference signs are used to indicate the same or similarcomponents throughout the accompanying drawings. These drawings togetherwith the following detailed description form a part of the presentspecification, and serve to further illustrate preferred embodiments ofthe present invention and explain principles and advantages thereof, inwhich:

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an exemplary computer system to which apreferred embodiment of the present invention can be applied;

FIG. 2 further shows various components included in the computer systemas shown in FIG. 1 in detail;

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary Web application page layout in which a desktopapplication's user interface is integrated;

FIG. 4 simply shows user interaction and session replication processesof the computer system as shown in FIG. 2 during the desktop applicationinitialization;

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of a process 500 executed during the desktopapplication initialization in accordance with a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of a process 600 executed during the desktopapplication exit in accordance with a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 7 shows a flowchart illustrating in detail a specific process 700of a resource allocation and provisioning step S520 in the process 500as shown in FIG. 5 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention; and

FIG. 8 shows exemplary screen snapshot images of a client computer whenutilizing the method and system according to a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described inconjunction with the accompanying drawings hereinafter. For the sake ofclarity and conciseness, not all the features of actual implementationsare described in the specification. However, it should be appreciatedthat, during developing any of such actual implementations, numerousimplementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve thedeveloper's specific goals, for example, compliance with system-relatedand business-related constraints which will vary from one implementationto another. Moreover, it should also be appreciated that, such adevelopment effort might be very complex and time-consuming, but maynevertheless be a routine task for those skilled in the art having thebenefit of this disclosure.

It still needs to be explained herein that the accompanying drawingsonly show device structures and/or processing steps that are closelyrelated to the solution of the present invention and other details thathave little relation with the present invention are omitted, so that thepresent invention will not be obscured by unnecessary details.

Reference is made to the accompanying drawings hereinafter to give adetailed description of preferred embodiments in accordance with thepresent invention.

First, referring to FIG. 1, a block diagram illustrates a computersystem to which a preferred embodiment of the present invention can beapplied. As shown in FIG. 1, in accordance with the present invention,only Web browsers are required at the client side; one Web server andthree hosting servers are shown at the server side. Although only threehosting servers are shown in this figure, any number of hosting serverscan be included. Just as mentioned above, hosting servers refer to thoseservers for providing related desktop applications.

A Web application and related supporting components are deployed in theWeb server. In the hosting server, one or more desktop applicationspossibly requested by the client have been or can be deployed. Forgeneral Web application interaction, a client browser communicates withthe Web application deployed on the Web server. When certain desktopapplication interaction is needed, a corresponding hosting server willbe allocated for the user by the Web server. Then, the clientcommunicates with the desktop application deployed on the hostingserver. After desktop application interaction finishes, the hostingserver is released. After that, the client continues to interact withthe Web server. This above procedure might be repeated for many times,depending on client's needs on desktop applications.

Next referring to FIG. 2, a diagram illustrates in detail componentsincluded in the computer system as shown in FIG. 1. For the sake ofsimplicity, only one hosting server 300 is shown in FIG. 2. However,those skilled in the art would understand that this computer system maystill include one or more other components not shown and usually havemore than one hosting server in practice.

As shown in FIG. 2, at the client side, a browser plug-in is installedin the browser 100. This plug-in is referred to as terminal agent 110hereinafter (Details of this plug-in will be described hereinafter inconjunction with a processing flowchart of the method). It has two majorfunctions: intercepting user input and sending it to a correspondinghosting server (e.g., a hosting server 300 in FIG. 2); and displayingthe user interface of the corresponding hosting server in the browser100. Several existing technologies, such as VNC offered by RealNVC (akind of remote control software) XWindow manager for Linux/UNIX and thelike, could be used to implement this plug-in. In addition to thesetechnologies, a Java applet approach could be used to realize theterminal agent 110 (Java is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystemsin the U.S and other countries).

For example, in case of using the Java applet approach, when the appletis initialized, it will connect to a corresponding terminal service 310running on the hosting server 300, as shown in FIG. 2. Then, a TCPconnection could be established. This applet may capture the user'skeyboard and mouse events and send them to the corresponding hostingserver 300. After the terminal service 310 receives these events, itwill generate such events on the hosting server 300 to simulate clientinteraction. At the same time, the terminal service 310 captures theuser interface of the hosting server 300 (i.e., screen) and sends ascreen image back to the client. When the terminal agent 110 receivesthe screen image, it will draw the image within the applet. For securityconsideration, data transferred between the client and server could beencrypted in practical applications. Furthermore, for performanceconsideration, image cache could be enabled at the client side whiledata being transferred could be compressed.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary Web application page layout in which a desktopapplication's user interface is integrated. After the user at the clientside enables a remote desktop application through his/her Web browser,the Web page layout as shown in FIG. 3 will appear in the Web browser100 at the client side by means of the terminal agent 110. That is, theremote desktop application's user interface (UI) will appear in arectangle area in a Web page on the Web browser at the client side. Therectangle area is controlled by the terminal agent 110 shown in FIG. 2.

Turn back to FIG. 2 again. As shown in FIG. 2, on the Web server 200 atthe server side, a Web application 210 needs to call a desktopapplication service 230 to handle usage requests for desktopapplications. When the client requests to use a certain desktopapplication, the Web application 210 generates a desktop applicationinitialization request for asking the desktop application service 230 tomake preparation. As shown in FIG. 2, the desktop application service230 mainly comprises the following components: a request handler 240, afile controller 250, a session manager 260, a resource manager 270 and adeployment controller 280.

Besides these components, as shown in FIG. 2, at the server side, theremay also include a resource pool 400 containing one or more servers,which is used to provide the required hosting server(s), for example,the hosting server 300 (for the sake of explanation, only one hostingserver 300 is shown in FIG. 2, but in fact any number of hosting serverscan be included); and an image and software repository 500 for storingserver images and installation software for a plurality of desktopapplications that might be requested by the client.

The request handler 240 provides several interfaces to the Webapplication 210, which are as follows:

(1) Desktop Application Initialization

In the desktop application initialization request sent from the Webapplication 210 to the desktop application service 230, the client needsto send version information of the desktop application and a list offiles which need to be opened by the desktop application. In addition, afile synchronization option and a restore options could be included inthe initialization request. Furthermore, Web session information couldalso be included so that the request handler 240 could reuse the samehosting server for the same user. For example, the following is anexemplary XML initialization request:

<initializereq>  <application name=“Photoshop” version=“7.0”vendor=“Adobe”> <file url=“/images/header.jpg”location=“crl.ibm.com:/shared/ myproject/header.jpg”synchronization_interval=10s refresh=true/>  <fileurl=“/images/footer.jpg”  location=“crl.ibm.com:/shared/myproject/footer.jpg” synchronization_interval=20s refresh=false/>  </application><application name=“Word” version=“2003” vendor=“Microsoft”> <fileurl=“/docs/news.doc” location=“crl.ibm.com:/shared/doc/ news.doc”/></application> <session id=“DFAWER214ASDFD”/> <restoreimageid=23>true</restore> </initializereq>

From the initialization response of the desktop application service 230to the above initialization request, the client could know whether thisrequest is handled successfully or not. The address of the hostingserver can also be known so that the client browser could know how toconnect to the hosting server. For example, the following is anexemplary XML initialization response:

<initializeresp>  <result value=“success” appid=“1”/>  <addressvalue=“myhost:myport”/> </initializeresp>(2) Desktop Application Exit

After the user has finished using the desktop application, the Webapplication 210 may request to exit the desktop application so thatrelated resource could be recycled. The Web session information could beincluded in the exiting request so that the request handler 240 can knowwhich hosting server needs to be recycled. Moreover, a backup optioncould also be included in the exiting request so that the hosting serverenvironment could be backed up as necessary. For example, the followingis an exemplary XML exiting request:

<exitreq>  <session id=“DFAWER214ASDFD” /> <backup>true</backup></exitreq>

From the response to the exiting request, the Web application 210 couldknow the result of the operation. For example, the following is anexemplary XML exiting response:

<exitresp>  <result value=“success”/> <image id=23/> </exitresp>(3) Query

The query function enables the Web application 210 to check the statusof the current environment. For example, the following status could bechecked:

-   -   Available applications;    -   Running status of the hosting server for a session.

In the Web application, when there is a need to utilize a desktopapplication, it could firstly query available desktop applications andthen list them, for example, in the form of a list.

For each desktop application, the following attributes could bedisplayed for the user's selection: application name, version, vendorand operation system (OS). The above information can be obtained fromthe resource manager 270, the detailed description of which will begiven below. In the Web application 210, the list of available desktopapplications could be modified according to the user's authority anddemand.

When the user requests to use a certain desktop application through theWeb browser 100 and submits the form, the Web application 210 willgenerate a desktop application initialization request and send it to therequest handler 240. The request handler 240 will firstly check thesession manager 260 to determine whether there is already a runninghosting server for this current session or not. If such a hosting serveris determined as not present, then it will request the resource manager270 to allocate one hosting server from the resource pool 400, forexample, hosting server 300, to run the requested desktop application.After the resource allocation is done, the request handler 240 willrequest the deployment controller 280 to prepare and provide hostingserver environment and acquire the hosting server's address, such as IPaddress and port number. Then, the session manager 260 saves the hostingserver address information and user session information. At last, therequest handler 240 sends the hosting server address back to the Webapplication 210. The Web application 210 sends to the user browser sidea page which includes plug-in (i.e., the terminal agent 110) informationand the hosting server address. After the user browser 100 receives theresponse, it will start the plug-in, i.e., terminal agent 110. Here, itneeds to be noted that the plug-in is only required to be downloadedfrom the Web server when the client accesses the remote desktopapplication via the browser for the first time; and as the case may be,the plug-in could be stored on the Web server or anywhere else on thenetwork accessible by the Web server (For the sake of simplicity, itisn't shown in FIG. 2). This procedure described above is shown in FIG.4.

FIG. 4 simply shows user interaction and session replication processesof the computer system as shown in FIG. 2 during the desktop applicationinitialization. Just as described above, ‘1’ shows Web applicationinteraction using session tokens; ‘2’ shows that the client requests fora desktop application in the Web application; ‘3’ shows that the Webapplication 210 sends a desktop application initialization request tothe desktop application service 230; ‘4’ shows preparing desktopapplication environment, that is, a desktop application initializationprocess, details of which will be described thereinafter with referenceto the flowchart as shown in FIG. 5; ‘5’ shows that the desktopapplication service 230 responds to the Web application 210; ‘6’ showsthat the Web application 210 responds to the browser; and ‘7’ shows thatthe browser 100 starts the terminal agent 110 and connects to a desktopapplication 340.

After finishing the desktop application interaction as described above,the user may, for example, send a request to the Web application 210,which then generates a desktop application exit request and send it tothe request handler 240 of the desktop application service 230. If theuser wants to save his/her hosting server currently allocated for futureuse, the deployment controller 280 may store the entire server image ofthis hosting server to the image and software repository 500. Afterthat, the request handler 240 calls the deployment controller 280 toclean up the target hosting server, for example, clear some filesgenerated during the user's usage so that they would not be seen byother users later, and asks the resource manager 270 to release thehosting server. This above process will be described in detailhereinafter with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 6.

Turn back to FIG. 2 again. The session manager 260 is used to maintainand save user session. After receiving the desktop applicationinitialization request, the request handler 240 checks the sessionmanager 260 to determine whether or not there is already a hostingserver running for this session. If such a server is not present, thesession manager 260 saves this session ID and allocated hosting serverID. If such a server is already present, the request handler 240 willreturn the hosting server's IP address and port number.

In the resource pool 400, there may be one or more servers of differenttypes, such as Intel/AMD PC server and UNIX server, etc. These serversmight have already installed an operation system and desktopapplications, but it is also possible that no operation system anddesktop application is installed therein. In addition to physicalservers, the resource pool 400 might also include one or more virtualservers.

The resource manager 270 maintains the resource pool 400 and handlesresource allocation requests and resource release requests. The resourcemanager 270 keeps track of all servers in the resource pool 400 andsaves their detailed information. Such information may include theservers' hardware type and configuration, IP address, OS type, name andversion information of desktop applications installed or stored in theserver, etc. Based on this information, the resource manger 270 couldallocate or determine the best suitable server with respect to aresource allocation request. When a certain resource allocation requestis received, the resource manger 270 may find a matched server in theresource pool 400 based on the desktop application and its required OSname. If a matched server (i.e. hosting server) is found, then thematched server will be marked as “in use”, and its IP address and portnumber will be returned. If no matched server is found, then theresource manger 270 will select a suitable hosting server from theresource pool 400 for provisioning and mark it as “in use”. This aboveprocess will be described in detail with reference to the flowchartshown in FIG. 7 hereinafter. When a resource release request isreceived, the resource manager 270 will release the server in use andmark it as “free”. If the server in use is a virtual server rather thana real physical server, the resource manager 270 will destroy thisserver and release the allocated resource.

In other words, both physical servers and virtual servers could bemanaged by the resource manager 270. For a physical server, it ismanaged by the resource manager 270 at a box level, which means only onephysical server could be allocated for a single user each time. For avirtual server, the host platform on which it runs could be shared bydifferent users. Each user may only use a virtual server, which onlyconsumes part of physical server resource. Virtual servers could beprepared in the resource pool 400 prior to allocation or provided ondemand.

The deployment controller 280 is an automation engine forauto-installation. It could install a remote system automatically. Theinstallation work includes OS installation, application programinstallation, software configuration, system updating, and server backupetc. Installation software is generally stored in the image and softwarerepository 500. The deployment controller 280 could be implemented byseveral existing products, such as IBM's Director for Windows/Linuxprovisioning or IBM's NIM for AIX provisioning.

The major function of the file controller 250 is synchronizing filesbetween the Web server 200 and the hosting server 300. The filecontroller 250 communicates with a control agent 330 in the hostingserver 300 to finish this task. During the desktop applicationinitialization, it replicates those files specified in the desktopapplication initialization request to the home directory of hostingserver 300. During exiting the desktop application, it replicates allfiles modified or updated during the desktop application interactionfrom the hosting server 300 to original locations on the Web server 200or other locations. During the desktop application initialization andthe desktop application exit, the file controller 250 could replicateall the modified or updated files on the hosting server 300 to a certaintemporary location on the Web server 200 repeatedly. This is for thepurpose of backup to prevent these files from being lost after thehosting server 300 crashes for some reasons. Of course, as analternative, the file controller 250 may also directly replicate all themodified or updated files to original locations on the Web server 200 tooverwrite those original files, so that the modification or updatingmade can be reflected immediately. It can be set by the user based onhis requirements.

In the image and software repository 500, two kinds of data are stored,that is, desktop application/OS installation software and server images.Installation software is used for first time installation of acorresponding desktop application or operation system on a hostingserver (it may be either physical or virtual). Server images aresnapshot/backup of existing servers. Installation software may have thefollowing attributes: software name, version, vendor and installationscript. Server images may have the following attributes: software list,image creation date, user ID and hardware type.

On each hosting server (e.g., hosting server 300 shown in FIG. 2), inaddition to the desktop application 340, two components are alsoinstalled, i.e., the terminal service 310 and the control agent 330.

The terminal service 310 communicates with the terminal agent 110 toobtain user input at the client side and reproduce it on the hostingserver 300 side. It also captures the UI on the hosting server and sendsit to the terminal agent 110 at the client side. In this way, the usercould call and control the remote desktop application through the Webbrowser. Similar to the terminal agent 110, the terminal service 310could also be implemented by several existing technologies such as VNCand Java applet, etc.

The control agent 330 mainly has file synchronization and applicationcontrolling functions. The control agent 330 interacts with the filecontroller 250 on the Web server 200 to synchronize files. The controlagent 330 could also monitor the user's local directory on the hostingserver and track file change events. When a certain file is modified orupdated, it may notify the file controller 250 to replicate the modifiedor updated file. In the desktop application initialization stage, thecontrol agent 330 needs to start the target application and load inputfiles. In the desktop application exit stage, the control agent 330needs to stop and exit the desktop application in use. Herein, thecontrol agent could also be implemented by means of script or program.

Detailed description will be given in conjunction with the flowcharts asshown in FIG. 5 to FIG. 7 to illustrate the functions of the abovecomponents and the processing flow of an exemplary method for converginga desktop application and a Web application in accordance with thepresent invention. FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of a process 500 executedduring the desktop application initialization in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention; FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of aprocess 600 executed during exiting the desktop application inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. 7 showsin detail a specific process 700 in a resource allocation andprovisioning step S520 in the process 500 as shown in FIG. 5 inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

As described above, after the Web application 210 generates the desktopapplication initialization request, the desktop applicationinitialization process 500 will be started, as shown in FIG. 5. At stepS510, the request handler 240 checks the session manager 260 todetermine whether there is an existing hosting server for this sessionor not. If a negative result is obtained at step S520, that is, if sucha hosting server can't be found, the process proceeds to step S520 whereresource is allocated and provisioned by means of the resource manager270 and deployment controller 280 (its further description will be givenhereinafter with reference to FIG. 7), and then the process 500 proceedsto step S530. Or otherwise, if it is determined that such a hostingserver exists at step S520, the process 500 directly proceeds to stepS530. At step S530, the file controller 250 replicates the currentsession file (e.g., Web files 220 shown in FIG. 2) to the hosting server(e.g., hosting server 300 shown in FIG. 3). At step S540, the controlagent 330 starts the required desktop application 340 and terminalservice 310 on the hosting server 300. At step S550, the hostingserver's IP address and port number are returned to the client side (ifthe user accesses the remote desktop application via his browser for thefirst time, the client browser plug-in, i.e., terminal agent 110 isreturned to the client at the same time) and then the desktopapplication initialization process 500 ends. After that, the user canstartup the terminal agent 110 at the client side and begin to interactwith the desktop application on the hosting server 300.

After the user has finished the desktop application interaction, he/shemay send a request to the Web application 210, then the Web application210 sends a desktop application exit request and thus the desktopapplication exit process 600 as shown in FIG. 6 will be started.

As shown in FIG. 6, at step S610, the request handler 240 checks thesession manager 260 to determine whether there is a hosting serverrunning in this session. Since the hosting server 300 is reallyallocated and run during the desktop application interaction asdescribed above, the determination result at step S610 is positive andthus the desktop application exit process 600 proceeds to step S620; orotherwise, the process 600 ends. At step S620, the control agent 330stops the desktop application 340 and terminal service 310 on thehosting server 300. Then, at step S630, by means of communicationbetween the file controller 250 and the control agent 330, all the filesmodified or updated during the desktop application interaction arereplicated to the original locations on the Web server 210 to overwriteoriginal files. Next, at step S640, it is determined whether the userwants to save the image of the current hosting server for future use.For example, it can be realized in the following manner. The Webapplication can take “backup application” as an option and after theuser selects this option, a parameter will be carried in the desktopapplication exit request sent by the Web application to the desktopapplication service to ask for backup of the current application. Forexample, the <backup> field in the <exitreq> message given above can bereferred to. The request handler checks this parameter. If it isdetermined that the user wants to save the image of the current hostingserver at step S640, the process 600 proceeds to step S650, where thedeployment controller 280 stores the image of the entire hosting serverto the image and software repository 500, and then the process proceedsto step S660. Or otherwise, the desktop application exit process 600will directly jump to step S660, where this hosting server is cleared bythe deployment controller 280 and then released by the resource manager270 to the resource pool 400, then the desktop application exit process600 shown in FIG. 6 ends. Detailed description of the processing of stepS520 shown in FIG. 5 (i.e., resource allocation and provisioning process700) in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention isfurther given in conjunction with the flowchart in FIG. 7 below.

As shown in FIG. 7, at step S710, it is decided whether or not the userwants to restore server image and there is an existing server image forthe image ID specified in the desktop application initialization requestin the image and software repository 500. Herein, reference could bemade to the <restore> field in the exemplary <initializereq> messagegiven above as for the image ID. For example, before the user requeststo startup the desktop application, he/she could query the server imagesand their image IDs already stored in the image and software repositoryby means of the Web application and when the user requests to startupthe desktop application, he/she could input an image ID. If the decisionresult is negative at step S710, the process 700 proceeds to step S720to determine whether there is a free hosting server with matched OS anddesktop application or not. If the decision result is positive at stepS720, the process 700 jumps directly to step S780. If the decisionresult is negative at step S720, then at step S730, it is determinedwhether there is a free hosting server that can be installed with therequested desktop application. If it is determined that such a hostingserver is not present at step S730, then at step S740, an error will bereturned to the client and thus the desktop application interaction isexited. Or otherwise, if it is determined that such a hosting server ispresent at step S730, then at step S750, an operation system isinstalled on the hosting server if required (of course, if there is theoperation system installed on this hosting server, this step can beskipped). Next, at step S760, the required desktop application isinstalled on the hosting server. Subsequently, the process proceeds tostep S770 to install the terminal agent and control agent on the hostingserver, wherein the terminal agent and control agent can be stored in,for example, the image and software repository 500 (of course, if theterminal agent and control agent have already been installed on thishosting server, this step can be skipped). After that, at step S780, thestatus of hosting server is set as “in use”, then at step S790, thehosting server's IP address is returned to the request handler 240,thereby the resource allocation and provisioning process 700 as shown inFIG. 7 is finished. Then, step S530 shown in FIG. 5 will be proceededto. FIG. 8 is an example of applying the method and system in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, a pluralityof screen snapshot images of the client computer from the time when theuser selects a certain desktop application on the Web browser to thetime when the user accesses the remote desktop application at the clientside are shown in sequence.

From the above description of the computer system and method inaccordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention, it canbe easily seen that, according to the present invention, the end usercould call the remote desktop application via his/her Web browser at theclient side, just as if this desktop application is a part of the Webapplication. Files can be synchronized between the Web server and thehosting server and all the files and data can be stored on the Webserver, therefore, these files and data can be shared by many users andit is easier to manage and backup data on the Web server. In addition,according to the present invention, traditional desktop applications andthe Web application can be converged or integrated together, therefore,more plentiful desktop applications can be provided for the Webapplication of the end user, thereby making the user's Web experiencemore plentiful and interesting.

Of course, there might have other advantages besides those describedabove, which will not be enumerated one by one.

Although description is given in conjunction with the flowcharts shownin FIG. 5 to FIG. 7 as for the functions of the system and itscomponents shown in FIG. 2 and the processing flow of the correspondingmethod in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention, those skilled in the art would appreciate that the abovesystem block diagram and processing flowcharts are only exemplary andvarious changes may be made thereto depending on design requirements andpractical requirements without departing from the essence and scope ofthe present invention. For example, the server images and desktopapplication installation software are stored in one image and softwarerepository as shown in FIG. 2, but they can be stored in differentrepositories, respectively. At step S630 shown in FIG. 6, as analternative, those files modified or updated during the desktopapplication interaction can be replicated to a temporary location on theWeb server 210 rather than original locations, so as to prevent thesefile being lost after the hosting server crashes for some unexpectedfaults. Furthermore, the processes described in conjunction with theflowcharts shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 are based on the premise that theoption of “saving server image” has been selected by the user. However,the present invention can also be applied to a situation that the optionof “saving server image” is not selected. At this time, the repository500 shown in FIG. 2 does not need to save the server image and somedetermination steps in the shown process flowcharts could also beskipped. Moreover, at step S715 shown in FIG. 7, although it is notdefinitely indicated, it should be understood by those skilled in theart that the allocated hosting server can be either a real andindependent physical server or a virtual server that can be shared bymany users. Of course, there might have other alternatives, which willnot be enumerated one by one herein.

Although no complete flowchart of the method according to the exemplaryembodiments of the present invention is given in the accompanyingdrawings, it is obvious that those skilled in the art could draw thecorresponding flowchart without any efforts based on the literaldescription of the present invention and the flowcharts in FIG. 5 toFIG. 7.

Furthermore, it is obvious that the operation procedures of the methodaccording to the present invention described above can also beimplemented in the form of a computer executable program stored invarious machine readable storage media.

Moreover, the objects of the present invention can also be implementedby providing a storage medium with codes of the above executable programstored thereon directly or indirectly to a system or device, and thenreading out and executing the program codes by a computer or centerprocessing unit (CPU) of the system or device.

At this time, as long as the system or device has a function ofexecuting a program, implementing modes of the present invention are notlimited to the program, and the program can be in any form of, forexample, an object program, program executed by an interpreter, orscript program provided to an operating system, etc.

The machine readable storage media mentioned above may include but notbe limited to various memories and storage units, semiconductor devices,magnetic disk units such as optical, magnetic and magneto-optic disks,and other media suitable for storing information, etc.

In addition, the present invention may be achieved by a client computerby connecting to corresponding websites on the Internet, downloading thecomputer program codes according to the present invention and installingthe same into the computer and then executing the program codes.

Finally, it is also noted that, in this document, relational terms suchas left and right, first and second, and the like are used merely todistinguish one entity or action from another entity or action withoutnecessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or orderbetween such entities or actions. Moreover, the terms “comprise”,“comprising,” “include” or any other variations thereof, are intended tocover a non-exclusive inclusion so that a process, method, article, ordevice that comprises a list of elements does not only include theseelements but also may include other elements not explicitly listed orinherent to such process, method, article, or device. An elementpreceded by “a” or “an” does not, without more constraints, preclude theexistence of additional identical elements in the process, method,article, or device that comprises the element.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described indetail with reference to the accompanying drawings, it should be notedthat, these embodiments are only used to illustrate the presentinvention but not to limit the present invention. Various modificationsand changes can be made by those skilled in the art without departingfrom the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of thepresent invention is only defined by the appended claims and theequivalents thereof.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for converging a desktopapplication and a Web application, the Web application being included ina Web server, the method comprising: determining an appropriatecorresponding hosting server for a user in response to a request from aclient user to the Web server for using a target desktop application;preparing and provisioning a desktop application environment on thecorresponding hosting server and starting the target desktopapplication; transmitting the corresponding hosting server's address anda browser plug-in configured to intercept user input to the client toenable desktop application interaction between the client and thecorresponding hosting server; and displaying a user interface of thecorresponding hosting server in a web browser at the client side.
 2. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein all files on the correspondinghosting server and the Web server are synchronized during the desktopapplication interaction.
 3. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising: stopping and exiting the target desktop application on thecorresponding hosting server in response to the completion of thedesktop application interaction; and storing server image of thecorresponding hosting server and releasing the corresponding hostingserver after exiting the target desktop application.
 4. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein determining an appropriate correspondinghosting server for the user comprises: if there is a hosting server forthe current session in a resource pool at present, then determining itas the corresponding hosting server; or otherwise, according to thetarget desktop application and its required operating systeminformation, finding from the resource pool a matched hosting server asthe corresponding hosting server.
 5. The method according to claim 4,wherein preparing and provisioning desktop application environment onthe corresponding hosting server comprises: if said target desktopapplication has not been installed on the corresponding hosting server,installing an operating system required by the target desktopapplication on the corresponding hosting server as necessary; andinstalling the target desktop application on the corresponding hostingserver, wherein installation software for a plurality of desktopapplications including the target desktop application and their requiredoperating systems is stored in a repository accessible by the Webserver.
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein when the userrequests to use the desktop application for the first time, the browserplug-in is simultaneously transmitted to the client, so as to interceptuser input at the client side.
 7. A system for converging a desktopapplication and a Web application, comprising: a Web server beingconfigured to communicate with a client and one or more hosting serversand including a Web application and a desktop application servicesstored in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, wherein theWeb application generates a desktop application initialization requestin response to a request from a user of the client for using a targetdesktop application, and generates a desktop application exit request inresponse to the completion of desktop application interaction; andwherein in response to the desktop application initialization request,the desktop application service starts a desktop applicationinitializing process on the Web server, determines an appropriatecorresponding hosting server for the user, prepares and provisions adesktop application environment on the corresponding hosting server tostart the target desktop application, and transmits the correspondinghosting server's address and a browser plug-in configured to interceptuser input to the client to enable desktop application interactionbetween the client and the corresponding hosting server, with a userinterface of the corresponding hosting server being displayed in a webbrowser at the client side.
 8. The system according to claim 7, whereinthe desktop application service further comprises: a request handler forreceiving a request from the Web application and responding to it; asession manager for maintaining and saving the user's sessioninformation; a resource manager for performing resource allocation andrelease management on the one or more hosting servers; a deploymentcontroller for automatically installing a remote system on the one ormore hosting servers, so as to prepare and provision the hosting serverenvironment, wherein, in response to a desktop applicationinitialization request, the request handler checks the session managerto determine whether there is a hosting server running for the currentsession or not, and if not, then it requests the resource manager todetermine, according to the target desktop application and its requiredoperating system information, a matched hosting server from the one ormore hosting servers as the corresponding hosting server, in response tothe desktop application exit request, the request handler asks thedeployment controller to clear the corresponding hosting server and asksthe resource manager to release the corresponding hosting server.
 9. Thesystem according to claim 8, wherein the desktop application servicefurther comprises a file controller capable of communicating with thecorresponding hosting server to synchronize all files on the Web serverand the corresponding hosting server during the desktop applicationinteraction.
 10. The system according to claim 7, wherein the deploymentcontroller stores the corresponding hosting server's image into arepository after exiting the target desktop application.
 11. The systemaccording to claim 7, wherein, if said target desktop application hasnot been installed on the corresponding hosting server, the deploymentcontroller installs an operating system required by the target desktopapplication on the corresponding hosting server as necessary, andinstalls the target desktop application, and wherein installationsoftware for a plurality of desktop applications including the targetdesktop application and their operating systems is stored in arepository.
 12. The system according to claim 7, wherein, when the userrequests to use the desktop application for the first time, the browserplug-in is simultaneously transmitted to the client while transmittingthe corresponding hosting server's address, so as to intercept userinput at the client side.
 13. A computer system for converging a desktopapplication and a Web application stored in a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium, comprising: a client with a Webbrowser installed thereon; one or more hosting servers each including aterminal service for capturing the hosting server's user interface and acontrol agent for starting a desktop application on the hosting server;a Web server configured to communicate with the client and the one ormore hosting servers and including a Web application and a desktopapplication service, wherein the Web application generates a desktopapplication initialization request in response to a request for using atarget desktop application from a user of the client through the Webbrowser, and generates a desktop application exit request in response toa request from the user of the client for ending the desktopapplication, in response to the desktop application initializationrequest, the desktop application service determines an appropriatecorresponding hosting server for the user, prepares and provisions adesktop application environment on the corresponding hosting server tostart the target desktop application, and transmits the correspondinghosting server's address and a browser plug-in configured to interceptuser input to the client, with a user interface of the one or morehosting servers being displayed in a web browser at the client side. 14.The computer system according to claim 13, wherein the desktopapplication interaction is enabled between the client end and thecorresponding hosting server via the browser plug-in and the terminalservice on the corresponding hosting server; and wherein the Web serverclears and releases the corresponding hosting server after thecompletion of the desktop application interaction.
 15. The computersystem according to claim 13, further comprising: an image repositoryfor storing server images of hosting servers; and a software repositoryfor storing installation software for a plurality of desktopapplications including the target desktop application and their requiredoperating systems.
 16. The computer system according to claim 15,wherein the image repository and the software repository is the samerepository.
 17. The computer system according to claim 13, wherein theone or more hosting servers are independent physical servers ofdifferent types, or virtual servers sharing the same physical serverresource.
 18. The computer system according to claim 13, the desktopapplication service further comprising: a request handler for receivinga request from the Web application and responding to it; a sessionmanager for maintaining and saving the user's session information; aresource manager for performing resource allocation and releasemanagement on the one or more hosting servers; a deployment controllerfor automatically install a remote system on the hosting servers, so asto prepare and provision the hosting server environment, wherein, inresponse to the desktop application initialization request, the requesthandler checks the session manager to determine whether there is ahosting server running for the current session; and if not, it requeststhe resource manager to determine line a matched hosting server from theone or more hosting servers as the corresponding hosting serveraccording to the target desktop application and its required operatingsystem information; in response to the desktop application exit request,the request handler asks the deployment controller to clear thecorresponding hosting server and asks the resource manager to releasethe corresponding hosting server.
 19. The computer system according toclaim 18, wherein the control agent is also used to track modificationor change of the files on the hosting servers and wherein the desktopapplication service also includes a file controller for communicatingwith the control agent to synchronize the files on the hosting serverand the Web server during the desktop application interaction.
 20. Thecomputer system according to claim 13, wherein the browser plug-in, theterminal service, and/or the control agent can be implemented by any oneof VNC, Windows remote desktop, XWindows or Java technologies.